What is the 1-Page Marketing Plan? The nine squares explained

How does the 1-Page Marketing Plan work?

The 1-Page Marketing Plan is a framework by Allan Dib that fits a business's marketing onto one page divided into nine squares. The squares follow a person through three stages, from stranger to lead to paying customer, and you fill in three squares for each stage. According to Lean Marketing, the company Dib founded, the goal is "a simple, clear plan on a single page that you and your whole team can understand and follow."

This article explains what goes in each square. Then it does something most summaries skip. It sorts the squares by whether a startup with no customers yet can fill them in with facts or only with guesses, and shows how to turn the guesses into tests.

The nine squares of the 1-Page Marketing Plan

Lean Marketing's site lists the nine squares in three rows, one for each stage a person passes through.

The rows read as a sequence. Before someone knows you, you choose who to reach, what to say, and where to say it. Once they show interest, you capture their contact details, keep in touch, and turn interest into a sale. After they buy, you look after them, sell to them again, and ask for referrals.

What goes in each square

Before: the prospect

1. Target market. The specific group you want to reach. A narrow group lets the message sound like it was written for them.
2. Message. What you say to that group about their problem and your offer.
3. Media channels. Where the message reaches them: a community, an email list, search, ads, events.

During: the lead

4. Lead capture system. How an interested person gives you a way to reach them again, such as an email signup or a booked call.
5. Lead nurture system. How you stay in touch with leads who are not ready to buy yet.
6. Sales conversion strategy. How a lead becomes a paying customer: a call, a trial, a checkout page.

After: the customer

7. Customer experience. What happens after the purchase, so that the customer gets the result they paid for.
8. Customer lifetime value. How you sell more to the same customer over time.
9. Referrals. How happy customers bring you new ones.

Lean Marketing's site says that "every square has a real, working mechanism in it." That is the useful test for each square. "Social media" is not a mechanism. "One post a week in the founders' Slack group, linking to a free checklist" is one.

Which squares can a startup fill in before it has customers?

The framework was written for businesses that sell to customers. If you have no customers yet, some squares describe things you can decide today, and others describe things that do not exist yet. Here is how we would sort them. This sorting is our own reading, not Dib's.

The top row holds three guesses you can test. The middle row holds one thing you can build now and two guesses. The bottom row is empty, and you should leave it empty. Once you write a guess into a square, it looks decided, and you stop testing it.

How to use the 1-Page Marketing Plan as a startup

Fill in all nine squares, then mark each one as either "observed" or "guess." Most will be guesses. Then work through the top row, one square at a time.

1. Target market. Rewrite it as a description you can search for, based on something people did recently. Our guide on how to find customers for a startup shows how, with a list of 30 names as the first step.
2. Message. Write it in one sentence and send it to the people on that list. Count replies and what people say back.
3. Media channels. Do not choose these in advance. The place where most of your 30 names came from is your first channel.

When a square has evidence behind it, change its label to "observed" and write the number next to it, for example "7 of 30 replied." Then move to the middle row. Ask the people who replied for a call, then for a pre-order or a paid pilot. The sales conversion square stays a guess until someone has said yes or no to a price.

Revisit the page after every test. If the message gets no replies, the plan changes. If one channel brings every reply, the plan gets narrower.

A worked example

Here is the top row for a hypothetical product, a tool that drafts follow-up emails for consultants. The numbers are illustrations, not results.

Target market (guess): Independent consultants who asked in the
  last 60 days how to follow up on a proposal.
Message (guess): "You sent the proposal. This drafts the follow-up
  so it goes out on day three, not day ten."
Media channels (guess): One consulting Slack community, LinkedIn.

After the first test:
Target market (observed): 34 people found in an afternoon.
Media channels (observed): 22 of 34 came from the Slack community.
Message (observed): 30 sent, 7 replies, 4 described the problem.
  Next: offer a 20-minute call to the 4.

The page now holds three facts and one next step. The bottom row is still empty, and that is accurate.

The 1-Page Marketing Plan or a startup marketing plan?

Dib's nine squares describe a whole marketing system, from first contact to referral. That is useful as a map of everything you will eventually need. For a startup before its first customer, most of that map is blank.

Our startup marketing plan template is narrower. It covers one audience, one offer, and the next test, with a written rule for what result would change your mind. We think it fits the stage before you have customers better. Once people are buying, the 1-Page Marketing Plan is a good way to check that you have not forgotten the middle and bottom rows. The two work well in sequence.

Keep the guesses and the evidence apart

The weakness of any one-page plan is that a guess and a fact look the same once they are written in a box. Three weeks later, you no longer remember which squares you tested.

We are building Boring Marketing Loop to keep that distinction visible. The workspace asks nine Customer & offer questions about who you help and what you offer, and it marks each answer as a guess until people respond. Each test records the signal you chose before it started. When you record the result, the answers that test checked show as tested, and you decide whether to continue, change direction, stop, or gather more evidence.

Marketing Loop is in development. If you want to know when it opens, join the build updates.

FAQ

What are the three phases of the 1-Page Marketing Plan?

Before, during, and after. Before covers prospects who do not know you yet. During covers leads who have shown interest. After covers paying customers. Each phase has three squares.

Is there a free 1-Page Marketing Plan template?

Lean Marketing's site offers a free tool that builds a plan from your answers. You can also draw the nine squares on a sheet of paper. The value is in what you write in each square, not in the template.

Is the 1-Page Marketing Plan good for startups?

It is a good map of what a working marketing system needs. Before your first customer, most squares will be guesses or empty. Use the top row as a list of things to test, and fill in the rest as customers arrive.

How is it different from a business plan?

A business plan covers the whole company, including finances, operations, and the team. The 1-Page Marketing Plan covers only how you attract, convert, and keep customers.

Fill in the top row this week

Draw the nine squares, fill in all of them, and mark every square as observed or a guess. Then pick the target market square and turn it into a list of 30 real people. When you have tested that square, move on to the message.